THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. ^ 25 



were cured. Then^ however, a decrease to 942,000 barrels 

 in 1875, and to 598,000 barrels in 1876, created a fresh 

 alarm. A new Commission was appointed to investigate the 

 allegation that the fishery was being over fished. The Com- 

 mission thought the decrease was due to accidental causes, 

 and declined to recommend a return to protective measures. 

 Their opinion has been justified by the result In the five 

 succeeding years the fishery yielded on an average 1,035,000 

 barrels a year. In 1880 no less than 1,473,000 barrels of 

 herrings were cured in Scotland. 



This rapid increase is the more remarkable because the 

 great majority of the herrings cured have always been 

 cured for export, and the course of the export trade has 

 entirely changed. During the first third of the present 

 century most of the herrings were exported either to the 

 West Indies or to Ireland. The slave-owners of the West 

 Indies found Scotch herrings a cheap food for their slaves, 

 and bought large quantities of them annually. But the trade 

 was actually destroyed by the abolition of slavery, and the 

 export of herrings, to "places out of Europe," which had 

 always exceeded 50,000 barrels, and which occasionally 

 was more than 80,000 barrels, dwindled away to nothing. 

 Ireland, however, still continued to purchase large quan- 

 tities of herrings till after the famine of 1847. The poverty 

 of the people in the first instance, and the rapid decrease of 

 the population afterwards, terminated the Irish demand ; 

 and Ireland, instead of taking 100,000, or even ■ 180,000 

 barrels of herrings a year, now only purchases about 20,000 

 barrels annually. 



Thus the two main markets, which had stimulated the 

 growth of the Scotch herring fishery during the first half 

 of the present century, were cut off from the exporter, and, 

 if no new demand had arisen, the trade must have perished. 



